VETERAN sound system selector Ricky Trooper has seen many a clash in his time, and is not afraid to say he has lost a few.

In the same way he has bounced back from those dancehall clashes, Trooper is now slowly recovering from his infamous YouTube rant of three years ago.

 

Trooper’s violent nine-minute tirade, replete with the comment ‘put that on YouTube’, quickly went viral. It was amusing in dancehall circles but officials at the United States Embassy in Kingston were not impressed. The 48-year-old Kilamanjaro selector’s US visa was revoked.

Trooper, who says he was intoxicated at the time the video was filmed, regrets the incident.

“Anyone who really knows me would know that I wasn’t my usual self. I had just finished playing at a dance in Atlanta and not only was I intoxicated, but I was going through a lot of personal issues and I just vented my frustation,” he tells Splash.

“I knew that there was a cameraman present and even when I said ‘put that on YouTube’, I wasn’t serious and now I am facing the consequences.”

Losing his US visa is part of those consequences. Trooper says it has affected him significantly as he has been unable to work in that country since 2010.

Despite the loss of his US visa, Trooper frequently plays dates in Africa, Europe and the wider Caribbean through work permits. His next big date is in August at the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Spain when he squares off against fellow selector Tony Matterhorn in a repeat of their famous 1995 Kilamanjaro versus King Addis clash.

Ricky Trooper

Trooper is excited about this assignment, which will be hosted by Rory Gilligan of Stone Love.

Garfield McKoy (Trooper’s real name) says his interest in sound systems started when he was eight years old and living in St Mary.

“I lived in a yard where there was a sound system and I was fascinated,” he recalls.

That fascination grew when he and his family relocated to Spanish Town where his neighbour, who owned a sound system, gave him his first opportunity to operate the turntables.

While attending St Catherine High School in the 1980s, he and a friend started their own sound system called Ultimate Touch. Next stop was Kilamanjaro, the era’s top ‘sound’.

“I was on Kilamanjaro as a deejay for years before the owner knew I could select, and when he found out I was told that I should play the sound or there was no work for me,” says a laughing Trooper.

It was not until 1995 that he got his big break. He defeated Matterhorn in one of modern sound systems’ memorable clashes.

The victory opened doors for Trooper who played at dances in the Caribbean, Europe and North America.

His journey did not stop at Kilamanjaro; he started his own Sound Trooper sound system in 2000, featuring in bouts with top-rated selectors like Britain’s David Rodigan.

The YouTube episode came at a time when the US Embassy cancelled the visas of several leading dancehall artists.

For Ricky Trooper, it has been a lesson well learned.

“A man is really a fool to what he doesn’t know and I didnt know the seriousness of what I did… it is a big blow to my career,” he said.